


Tying the Knot

by djsoliloquy



Category: Gentleman Bastard Sequence - Scott Lynch
Genre: Developing Relationship, Intimacy, Light Bondage, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-23
Updated: 2013-12-23
Packaged: 2018-01-05 15:38:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1095708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/djsoliloquy/pseuds/djsoliloquy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Reynart shows the Salvaras the ropes. And then they show him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tying the Knot

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tanyart](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tanyart/gifts).



> A little extra Reynart/Salvaras for your Yuletide stocking this season, enjoy!

Stephen Reynart shifted and generally made a fuss, pulling at the ropes around his wrists and ankles. He tried working his hidden stiletto into his palm but found it too far away to be useful. After a few moments of professional appraisal, he relaxed.

“Much better,” he said. “I daresay anyone would have a bit of trouble getting out of this.”

In front of him, the Don and Doña Salvara watched with expressions of absorbed concentration. Their faces quickly split into proud grins and they returned to his side.

“Shall we try it once more?” said Lorenzo, kneeling at the foot of the bed to attend to Reynart’s ankles.

They had clearly mastered the concept already. As useful as it was to know how to tie someone up, Reynart wouldn’t have said they needed training in it, certainly not once he had shown them the basics when they expressed interest in the subject. Actual confrontation, in Camorr’s streets and underworld, was really more his side of the equation.

But then, Reynart had not expected they would all enjoy the practice sessions so much.

He looked from one Salvara to the other. Sofia caught his eye and paused in unlacing his wrists, stroking down Reynart’s arm instead to rest her hand flat against his chest. By his feet, Lorenzo was also distracted. A firm palm found the inside of Reynart’s thigh and slowly moved up.

Reynart smiled and stretched against the pillows. “No one has ever regretted being _too_ practiced,” he said. “Yes, why don’t we try again?”

* * *

It wasn’t the first time he had offered his service for the sake of the Salvaras’ education. He had been a willing volunteer since almost the beginning, though generally for skills more aligned with their Spider roles.  It wasn’t simply because Reynart was the only one on hand who understood the job or knew their identities.

They worked best as a team and were thrilling to watch when they worked. Reynart had only to remember them at each other’s side, helping to heave a Wraithstone-filled statue into the Sky Garden cistern to know that. They embraced the role of duel Spiders and Reynart along with it. As far as Reynart knew, the thought of replacing him never once crossed their minds, just as leaving them had never crossed his.

And he had been theirs. They were a pleasure to work with, and then more than that. Even before the time they invited him to dinner without discussing business, when he first noticed the welcoming touches, fleeting familiar touches on his shoulder or small of his back. Even before the first time they concocted the special sweet citrus cake just for him, being aware of his tastes.

There had been the time after the cake as well, which they chuckled about later, when Sofia was still fine-tuning the sleeping liqueur. It hadn’t yet been developed to full strength and Reynart offered to sample it in the name of alchemy, and in the name Sofia, who smiled at him as she jotted down notes.

He remembered the prickly raspberry-orange flavor and Sofia saying, “Try to recall anything you can. It should take up to a minute for—Stephen?” and then “Oh—Lorenzo!” and Don Salvara’s arms caught Reynart around the chest, keeping the room from spinning completely on its head.

“Steady now, Stephen,” said Lorenzo near his ear. Reynart had never heard them say his name like that.

 He woke two minutes later with a Salvara on either side, quietly fussing over him. The wooziness faded at once and he felt immensely refreshed, comfortable, and decided to enjoy it—Sofia had her fingers on his wrist over the pulse, and Lorenzo had a hand across his forehead, perhaps checking his temperature. When they saw he was awake, after apologies, they all squeezed together on the cushions and spent a few close hours discussing possible applications for the Midnighters.

 

Their real overture to him was, in a way, their first night as Spiders. 

For a month or so Reynart had been tracking a new but persistent presence in Camorr, tracked through forged letters of credit and black market rumors. It was nothing blatantly dangerous or unusual. Sofia and Lorenzo decided on silent monitoring of the situation to see if anything developed. Reynart agreed, but something about it would not let go of his attention, to the point of warranting a personal investigation into the matter. He discovered a lead himself and followed it up one night, informing the Salvaras and intending only to reconnoiter before returning to Amberglass Tower. What he found in the back rooms of the empty building struck him momentarily speechless.

It was like the room had been cut from a completely different structure, light and refurnished rather than dark and crumbling. A large poster bed stood against the opposite wall, hung with curtains of heavy crimson velvet.

As he stood with his hand on his blade, ready to flee or fight, Doña Sofia appeared through another of the room’s doors. She looked ready for bed and fun, wearing a fine chemise sewn with lace in curling designs like the vines of plants. It made it increasingly difficult for Reynart to find his tongue.

“Wonderful, you’re here!” she said and reached out to him as though she couldn’t help it. “Well, of course you are. We never had any doubt.”

It fell into place as Don Salvara entered as well, looking just as pleased—and as pleasing—as his wife. As unable to hold himself back, too. His hand fell on Reynart’s upper arm, welcoming.

“Months,” said Reynart, shaking his head and sliding his sword back into the scabbard. He started to smile at the two of them. “For this?”

“For you, Stephen,” said Sofia, and Lorenzo nodded.

“It was never our intention to waste your time or deceive you with this.” Lorenzo glanced at Sofia. “But we wanted it to be a surprise and thank you somehow for what an irreplaceable help you’ve been these past months. For how important you are to us.”

It was their gift to him. He saw that as he took in the room. It would have taken all their lessons and newly honed cunning to arrange everything, plant rumors and false trails months in advance, all while using as few resources as possible so that it never came to Reynart’s attention. Inviting him, wanting him, honestly and without a hint of the hidden strings they were by now fully capable of placing.

His Spiders.

They watched him hopefully, dropping their arms as they waited for a response. Unable to stop smiling, he reached for them again and went down on one knee.

“My lord and lady,” he said, kissing their hands.

“Captain,” said Sofia. They pulled him up and kissed him in return. “Captain,” said Lorenzo against his other side, and the two of them were relieving him of his weapons and armor. They were laughing and grinning at each other as they fell into the bed.

* * *

For their final rope tying practice, Reynart noticed at once that his wrists were looser than necessary. It was not a knot meant to keep him bound, even in the slightest. A covert wink from Sofia proved the intent. Reynart smiled, mouth open from panting.

The Salvaras looked so content with him and with each other. After securing Reynart the leaned over him to kiss each other and Reynart was happy to watch. He pushed at the rope, moving more than necessary when he remembered he was meant to be testing the knots.

“I believe you may be taking longer than usual, Stephen,” Sofia asked, baring her throat to give Lorenzo room to kiss and mouth over her skin. “Could it be you are distracted?”

Reynart twisted his wrists with a new vigor. His wrists were tied together but his legs were spread to each corner of the bed. It not-quite exposed him through his breeches, showing as though on accident yet still mostly held in his clothing. Somehow it made him flush harder, being just barely held.

The Salvaras moved around him on some silent, coordinated signal. Sofia knelt between his legs. “My lady,” Reynart said, then Lorenzo was beside him and turning his face upwards. “My lord,” Reynart began, mouth open as Lorenzo kissed him too, accepting the moan from his mouth when Sofia traced a delicate finger along the seam of his breeches.

They adjusted the ropes until she could reposition Reynart’s legs, exposing him in increments with the delighted, focused expression she normally used only in her alchemical work. For a few breaths, both Reynart and Lorenzo were too absorbed in her progress to look elsewhere.

“Well, I’m at a loss as to what could be distracting you,” said Lorenzo, just far enough away that Reynart could not touch him.

With a small tug he pulled his hands down from the bedpost, planning to draw Lorenzo in. He considered freeing himself from the last of the rope to reach for Sofia as well when the Salvaras reached for him first.

They entwined their hands with his, binding themselves with him in the rope. He looked at his hands, and theirs, and when he blinked they were still there. Reynart let his head fall back with a moan, laughing shakily as he turned his head on the pillow.

“Ah, fine work,” he said finally, shaking a little as their unbound hands moved over him. “It seems I am well and truly caught.”

“As are we,” said Lorenzo, and they squeezed his fingers. In the end Reynart didn’t even need to ask them to move closer to kiss him again.


End file.
